


Here and There

by zarabithia



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-31
Updated: 2006-07-31
Packaged: 2019-04-07 00:04:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14068509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarabithia/pseuds/zarabithia
Summary: Lian adjusts to her life one year later.





	Here and There

Lian's new home is far away from the old city Lian doesn't like much - the one that had the man who hurt her. They've moved into a _house_ , which is a lot larger than the tiny apartment they used to live in. The house has a _huge_ backyard. Daddy likes the backyard because it gives him room to practice with his arrows without the neighbors being nosy or threatening to call the cops. Lian likes the yard because it gives her lots of room to play.

And a puppy. King Louie wouldn't have fit very well in their old apartment.

Their new, bigger yard also has two big trees that Aunt Dinah promised to teach her how to climb. Lian's not really sure she _wants_ to learn how, because the squirrels look pretty scary and Daddy says they're not allowed to hit them with rocks, sticks, or arrows. Aunt Dinah says they can climb the other tree, the one without the squirrels, but Lian doesn't think the birds - Daddy calls them robins- that live in that tree will like that very much.

Lian _likes_ the robins in their tree very much, and she thinks Daddy does too because sometimes, when they're playing tag in their new, bigger back yard, Daddy pays more attention to them than he does to her.

Sometimes, Lian thinks Daddy bought the house _because_ the of the robins' nest, even if that's a pretty silly reason to buy a house.  
*******

On Friday, Lian discovers that the neighbors next door have a daughter named Kayla who's only a year older than she is. Lian is very excited about this, because so far, all of the new neighbors who have come to visit them have been either _really_ old or _really_ interested in Daddy's lap. Lian thought they were all _really_ boring.

But on Friday afternoon, Daddy absolutely _forbids_ a sleepover at Kayla's house. Lian thinks this is because of his "over-protective Daddy compensation issues," which, although Lian doesn't completely understand what that means, was something that Aunt Grace had said once and told Lian to use it whenever Daddy wouldn't let her do what she wanted.

Lian misses Aunt Grace. But they don't talk a lot about her since the move. Daddy usually gets mad - not at Lian, but at Aunt Grace - so Lian doesn't mention her.

And Aunt Grace's trick never works. So, on Friday night, Lian calls Aunt Dinah.

On Saturday night, Lian's allowed to go to the sleep over with Kayla. Lian has a lot of fun, mostly because Kayla's daddy cooks a lot better than _Lian's_ Daddy and because Kayla doesn't think it's at all weird that Lian _hates_ the Brats dolls. Kayla _does_ think Lian's a little weird for thinking that Toyman is trying to use them to take over the planet, but that's just because Kayla's daddy isn't a superhero, so Lian forgives her.

When Kayla's mommy gets home, Lian finds out that Kayla's going to have a baby brother soon. Kayla is very excited about that. She can't wait to hold her new baby brother.

Lian's never had a baby brother, but before Uncle Wally and Aunt Linda died, she and Daddy had gone to see them and the twins. Iris and Barry had been _far_ cuter than Kayla's little brother will be, Lian's pretty sure. She doesn't say that, because it would probably be _tactless,_ and she's been working on that one since Uncle Connor told her what it meant.

But Lian doesn't stay the night after all.

Instead, after Daddy comes to pick her up, she crawls up on the couch next to him and they have pizza. He asks her what's wrong, just like he always does when things are not good. Lian usually tells him right away. . . because they're each other's _family,_ but . . . since The Big Bad Thing happened that took away so many of Lian's aunts and uncles, Daddy is sad more often and Lian doesn't want to make him even more sad.

But the more she thinks about Uncle Wally, Aunt Linda, and the twins, the more she can't help but think about Uncle Garth, Aunt Dolphin, and Ceridan, who used to be so much fun to beat at tag. And . . . it's too much to keep all inside, so it spills out.

Daddy does look sad, but he tells her it's okay. He tells her the same speech that he told her when Aunt Donna died about all of them becoming part of the Earth again. "But _why?_ " Lian interrupts. "I miss them."

"I know you do, baby girl. And it's okay to hurt, it's okay to be frustrated, and it's okay to be angry."

"I miss Uncle Wally and Ceridan whenever me and you play tag. I miss Uncle Garth and Aunt Dolphin whenever you take me to the pool. I miss Aunt Linda whenever we go past a hospital, because she was going to be a doctor, Daddy. And it's not fair that she was going to help people and that she had to die."

"Precious, they were all helping people. They gave their lives so that others didn't have to. Because that's what superheros do."

"Ceridan and the twins weren't superheros."

Daddy sighs, in the same way that he does when she asks a question he doesn't like. He then talks some more about what the Navajo think, and Lian wonders if not caring makes her a bad little girl.

". . Does that help, squirt?"

Lian nods, even though it's not true. Lying is bad, but sometimes a kid has to. It's no different than when Aunt Dinah lectures her _forever_ about doing something wrong and then asks if she understands why she's in trouble. Lian never does, but she always _says_ she does. "Do you think any of them will come back?"

Daddy's eyes look so sad, and Lian feels bad for even asking the question in the first place. "I. . . don't know, Lian," he says, in the same tone of voice that he used when he told her that her pet goldfish had died. "I hope so. . .and we'll see. We got Gran'pa Ollie and Aunt Donna back,didn't we?"

Lian pulls away from his hug and crosses her arms. "We got Gran'pa Ollie back," she agrees. "And Aunt Donna came back, but not to us."

"Dart. . . sometimes when people are busy, they forget what matters most to them. Aunt Donna still loves you with all her heart. . . even if she isn't showing it very well."

"But can I be angry with her? You said I can be angry all the rest of them - the ones that died - is it okay if I'm angry at her for forgetting about us?"

Daddy strokes her hair, and looks like Lian feels when Miss Conway calls on her for an answer to the math problems. For a long time, he doesn't answer, but eventually, he nods. "Yeah, Dart. That's okay."

"Good, because I _am_ mad at her. I'm mad that she stopped coming around and I'm mad that she went off and became Wonder Woman when they're already were a bunch of Wonder Womans . . . and I'm mad at Uncle Dick, too." Lian hadn't meant to say the last part, but it already slipped out.

Daddy pulls her back into the hug. "You must miss him a lot."

"I do." Lian doesn't say that she misses him most of all. She doesn't say that she's angry at him most of all. She doesn't tell Daddy how much it hurts when all the other kids in her class talk about the "evil Outsiders" or "the Nightwing who kills." All she does say is, "I miss the other Outsiders too."

Daddy gets the angry look - the one he has whenever the newspapers have a picture of Uncle Dick in them - briefly, but then it disappears and is replaced by the sad look. "You like our life here, though, don't you?"

"I liked our old life better."

"Things change, Lian. That's always going to be a part of your life. . . no matter how much it may suck at the time. Change is the one constant we have in this life."

"What's a constant?"

Daddy laughs, and Lian's glad, because it looks better than when he's sad. "It means it's the only thing you can depend on out of life."

"Oh."

Daddy stands then, pulls her up, and swings her around. "Enough feeling sorry for ourselves, kiddo. What do you say we go work on how to climb that tree?"

"That's Aunt Dinah's job."

"Well, we'll learn a little bit now. So you can show off for Aunt Dinah when she gets here."

"Okay. . . but, Daddy, do you think the robins are asleep? Because if they are, we don't want to wake them up."

"No, wouldn't want to do that. We'll just have to climb the other tree, squirrels or no squirrels."

They take King Louie with them, to guard against the evil squirrels, and Daddy watches the robins while Lian falls on her butt a lot. Daddy tells her she has to fall on her butt in order to learn how to climb the tree, but it _hurts,_ so after three tries, she takes a break to watch their robins with Daddy. Daddy tells her the Mommy Robin is sitting on top of a nest full of eggs.

"Do you think the baby robins will stay here and build a nest in our tree too?" Lian asks.

Daddy looks at the robins for a long time before he answers. "I don't know, Lian," he answers finally.

"It's that change thing, huh?"

"That's right, smart one."

"Besides, things with wings fly away a lot."

Daddy looks down at her and looks like there's something he wants to say. Finally he bends down, swoops her up into his arms and hugs her tightly. "I love you, squirt. And I'm never going to fly away."

"Of course not, Daddy. You don't have any wings."

He laughs into her hair, and the hair on his face scratches Lian's forehead. "You know what I meant. If I have any say in it at all, I won't leave you. Not ever."

Lian doesn't tell him that Uncle Nightwing used to say the same thing. She doesn't tell him that she doesn't understand why that stopped being true. Most especially, she doesn't tell him that she's scared that he'll stop meaning it, just like Uncle Nightwing did.

Instead, she hugs him. She holds on extra tight this time, just in case he decides to fly away after all.  
********


End file.
